POINT TOWNSHIP -- A builder in central Pennsylvania has agreed to pay the state nearly $400,000 after a Newswatch 16 investigation. That developer was accused of using money for low-income housing and building homes for people who did not qualify.
A whistleblower in Northumberland County called it a government subsidy for the developer.
That developer will now have to pay the state the money received for the project.
The development is called Kingspointe, consisting of 14 units subsidized by the state for low-income owners in Point Township outside Sunbury in Northumberland County.
But our investigation in February found buyers who made "too much," bought 10 of those 14 units and that included a doctor.
"We feel that we have been duped as well as the agencies that have provided the money to it," Point Township Supervisor Randall Yoxheimer said back in February.
In February. Point Township supervisors feared they might owe the state some or all of the $381,000 for the project subsidized by the Department of Community and Economic Development.
The DCED filed a breach of contract suit, claiming both Point Township and the project's builder, the Yoder Group of Turbotville, failed to sell these units to low income people.
The whistleblower in the case is former Point Township Code Inspector Mark Heintzelman, who called the switch a crime.
"Should somebody go to jail over this? Yes. Will somebody go to jail over this? I don't know," Heintzelman said.
But now that a settlement has been reached, the Yoder Group, not the Township, will have to pay $381,000 to state and the state has agreed not to press criminal charges.
Point Township's solicitor says the Yoder Group did try to sell the units to low income buyers, but those people did not qualify for loans, and that's when the homes went to the higher income buyers.
We called the Yoder Group for comment on the settlement. Our calls were not returned.
